FYP as art

“Future Youth Project is a remarkable collective effort catalyzed by Vinca Petersen and Clare Cameron, a social network whose current project is to bring hands-on participation, new buildings and first-time trips to the countryside, to Ukrainian orphans and those who care for them.

Imagine what it means to children in remote villages, many with special needs, when a red bus draws up and spills forth foreign-speaking humans who have driven for six days to see them, bringing gifts, laughter and a commitment to their well-being sustained over years. Think of the effect that experience has on those travelling on the bus, some with their own troubles, coming from a British culture starved of community. Each is transformed by their contact with the other.

FYP has sparked wide-ranging public enthusiasm; volunteers work hundreds of hours to arrange fundraisers; vibrant and offbeat artists perform in its support. Imagine this entire, labour-intensive collection of events as a type of decentralized, mobile theatre. An artwork whose ‘medium’ is voluntary social networking, the mobilization of goodwill as a GIFT that is not simply a model of change, but accomplishes that change. FYP is a web of interrelationships built by its participants through time measured in years. It is social, participatory art at its best.”